It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection. These are the times when maps fade, old landmarks crumble and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.

Part of Byatt’s use of Ragnarok is as an ecological warning of the human destruction of life on Earth. That’s all well and good, but this ecological interpretation seems itself to be a metaphor for a deeper, more honest mourning of the open fields of childhood, and its relevance to the eventual devolution of the pure and beautiful into a black inky nothingness. […]

Supporters of Ram Bomjon are now claiming that the so-called Buddha Boy has been meditating for six years straight without eating, drinking, or moving, even though photographs and video document his frequent movements and vigorous activities. […]

We could admit that we devote ourselves to our jobs, and acknowledge that money matters a great deal as our culture’s symbolic representation of workers’ time and effort. We could stop denying our desire for material goods, and instead try to understand that desire, thus savoring every last bit of material worth in our purchases instead of buying obsessively and then discarding what we buy in purges of guilt. […]

It’s claimed that the mystical Buddhist udumbara flower has shown up at a convenience store in South Korea. However, clear facts show that udumbara flowers pop up all the time, not every three thousand years. Also, they’re not flowers. They’re insect eggs. […]

Jesus and snake of Asclepius are the same? Christians: How do you react to the idea that Jesus is one form of a sacred snake nailed to a post? If you accepted this idea, would it deepen your faith or weaken it? […]

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